DEBATENATE

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The challenge

“Using someone's preferred pronouns is basic decency”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

No. Decency doesn't require me to say something I believe is false. I'll use your name. I won't mock you, ever. But a pronoun isn't a nickname. It's a claim about whether someone is a man or a woman, and I'm not going to state a claim I think is untrue because I was told to. In twenty twenty-three, in three oh three Creative, the Supreme Court said the government can't force a person to create expressive work carrying a message she rejects. In twenty twenty-one a federal appeals court let a professor's free speech case go forward after his university disciplined him over pronouns. You'll say it costs me nothing. It costs me the truth. Let me ask you this. If decency means compelled speech, who decides what I have to say next? Speak the truth in love. Both halves, every time.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. Courtesy can be invited. It can't be compelled. Free speech includes the freedom not to say what you believe is false.

    In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment bars Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs conveying messages she disagrees with.

  2. Pronoun rules have already been used to punish people for their convictions. This is compelled speech, not manners.

    In Meriwether v. Hartop, the Sixth Circuit allowed a Shawnee State University professor's First Amendment claim to proceed after he was disciplined for declining to use a student's preferred pronouns.

  3. There's a decent path with no falsehood in it: use the person's name, speak warmly, never mock. Truth and love go together.

    Ephesians 4:15 calls believers to speak the truth in love.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: It's just like calling Robert by Bob. It costs you nothing, and refusing hurts a real person.

Nate: Calling Robert Bob makes no claim about reality. A pronoun makes a claim about someone's sex. I'll use any name you give me and I'll never mock you. I won't be ordered to affirm what I believe isn't true.

The lines

Sources

  1. U.S. Supreme Court, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023)
  2. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Meriwether v. Hartop (2021)
  3. The Bible, Ephesians 4:15

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